Monday, December 27, 2010

Friday, Dec 17, 2010

Physics poems/songs

Thursday, Dec 16, 2010

Day 2 Fractional Distillation

Students did separation.
I asked students to test density and flammability of the two liquids.

We skimped on this lab and only used 2 test tubes. Should have used 3. Several students swapped out test tubes before they collected any liquid or found water to be flammable!

Students still had problems measuring densities accurately. I do not think they are being careful about reading the volumes at the base of the meniscus.

Wednesday, Dec 15, 2010

Fractional Distillation Day 1.

Most students did a great job and were able to produce a reasonable, annotated graph.

Tuesday, Dec 14, 2010

Prepped Fractional Distillation Lab.

Students watched Hewitt video on Phase Changes.
Students did worksheet on video and handed it in at the end of class.

Homework is to write up procedure for finding density of a liquid.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Monday, Dec 13, 2010

Collected Wood Labs and checked off names as I collected them.

Explained how to do the Heating and Cooling of an Unknown substance lab.
Described set-up with both a picture and using the sample set-up.

Wrote procedure on board:
1. Prepare data table to take time and temperature measurements every 30 seconds for about 40 minutes.
2. Put 150 ml of water in the 250 ml beaker and place on the hot plate
3. Attach a test tube clamp to the ring stand and clamp on test tube with unknown substance and thermometer.
4. Place the test tube in the water so that it is about 1 cm above the bottom of the beaker.
5. Take time and temperature. Then turn on hot plate to high and continue to take time and temperature every 30 seconds (every half a minute)
6. When the temperature of the substance is 75 deg C, turn off hot plate, lift test tube out of water and swing to side, and continue to take time and temperature measurements every half a minute until the substance cools to 40 deg C.

Students are to make a graph of their data and annotate it showing what is happening in each stage, drawing horizontal lines to show melting and freezing points, and writing those melting and freezing temperatures on the graph.

On the reverse side of the paper, students make the following observations:
1. Describe the substance in the solid form before starting to heat it.
2. At what temperature does the substance begin to melt?
3. Does the substance begin to melt from the top down or bottom up?
4. Is the substance more dense in the liquid or solid phase and how can you tell?
5. Describe the substance in its liquid form.
6. At what temperature does the substance begin to freeze?
7. Does the substance begin to freeze from the bottom up or from the top down?

I should have also asked the students to record the temperature at which the substance appeared to be completely melted.

Normally I do this lab with a test tube in the water as well but I decided to omit this complication.

When students swung out their test tubes, I gathered up their hot water and unplugged their hot plates.

After students had a long plateau, I put their test tubes in a beaker of cold tap water to speed up the cooling process and get the "tail" on the curve.

I showed students how to set up their axes, landscape, 20 deg C to 90 deg C by 10 deg C on the y-axis and each division is 1 minute on the x-axis.

Many students did not complete their graph so I asked them to make sure they finished it for the start of tomorrow's class.

Friday, Dec 10, 2010

Asked if there were any questions on the Wood Lab write-up due Monday.

Students checked their crystals from the Separation of a Mixture Lab and sketched them on their lab sheets.

Students did the Heating Water Lab and made graphs.

Showed students how to annotate the graph.
Students finished annotation and handed in graph.

Thursday, Dec 9, 2010

Equipment Quiz

Students did the Separation of a Mixture Lab

Gave them time at the end of class to work on their Wood Lab write-ups.

Wednesday, Dec 8, 2010

Asked if there were any questions of the Wood Lab write-up

Answered any questions and re-capped both parts of the lab.

Showed pieces of lab equipment.

Prepped Separation of a Mixture Lab.

Discussed the differences between physical and chemical changes.

Showed the Bill Nye Video on Phases of Matter.

Students filled out worksheet on the Bill Nye Video.

Told students about Science Song/Poem due Friday, Dec 17.

Tuesday, Dec 7, 2010

Asked if there were any questions on the write-up or what they are doing in Part 2.

Students did Part 2 of the Wood Lab.

Monday, Dec 6, 2010

Break between lab days for Parts 1 and 2 of Wood Lab.

Answered questions on Part 1.
Went over what happened in each step of the lab in preparation for drawing the flow chart.

Showed how to draw the bar graphs for testing conservation of mass.
Showed what each category of the data table meant. Drew pictures to better illustrate what was expected for each entry.

Showed how to fill in the data table for the Volume of Gas and how to do the calculation.

Sketched the flow chart on the board and showed how to label the arrows and where to indicate which steps were physical changes and which were chemical changes.

Drew a picture showing how the set-up looks like a person smoking and how, if you smoke, all the foul stuff from the lab condenses in your lungs. Told the students this was the idea I was looking for in the Conclusion relating to real life section.

Went on and prepped Part 2 of the Lab.

Described what is meant by distillation and how it is used in this lab.

Sketched labeled diagram of the lab setup and showed an actual setup.
Wrote procedure on the board with emphasis on tricky points and safety concerns.

Asked students to continue writing up any sections of Part 1 they did not complete and to prepare Part 2 diagram, procedure, material list, and safety precautions for tomorrow.

Handed back homework from section 2.3 of the textbook. Many students did not turn it in.

Friday, December 3, 2010

Friday, Dec 3, 2010

Put on board how to collect data for gas, and how to calculate the volume of the gas.

Also showed how to make the graphs comparing the masses of the reactants and the products.

Students did a second run and some did a third run.

For HW asked students to type up more of Part 1 of the lab.

On Monday we will discuss Part 1 and then show the setup and procedure for Part 2.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Thursday, Dec 2, 2010

Reminded students NOT to discard collected liquid since they will need it for Part 2 of the experiment.

Went over last minute details.

Students did lab. All students completed one run.

We will do a second run tomorrow.